The question, has your response to demand in services during COVID-19 cost you money, isn’t as much about the potential to lose money as it is about making blind decisions during a rapidly changing environment. An environment that likely won’t slow down once the spread of COVID-19 does.
What data should you assess regarding the effects of COVID-19 on no-show rates? It is important to focus the analysis on three distinct areas, but includes one underlying question consistent within each area: What barrier is preventing this specific client from showing up to their session?
“Crises, especially the one we are experiencing now, have a significant financial and human toll, stranding assets and human capital and causing significant social and economic dislocation. However, many of these dynamics are ingredients for disruption from which new business models emerge.” – Innovation in a Crisis: Why it is more critical than ever, McKinsey & Company
Many of us read this quote and understand what is being communicated explicitly. There isn’t much to argue in the above statement. But how do these words translate into a reality where data can truly drive innovation for behavioral health providers? Have you considered all that has taken place with COVID-19 and the effects on our industry as innovative ingredients to create a new or revised agency model? A model that can sustain future crises? If not, it is likely due to one of two reasons:
Then what is the first step in becoming innovative? Without data, innovation will be misplaced and misguided. Efforts, resources, and changes will be applied to unaffected areas of the business. More than ever, right now is the time to look at data. Not tomorrow. Not in a few months. But right now. Because tomorrow may be too late. That over-worked service provider may decide she will submit her two-week notice tomorrow. All of which could be prevented by analyzing billed amount and units by clinician today to reveal potential burnout. To ultimately lead you to ask the right question and reveal the burnout you believe is taking place (likely as a result of overproduction due to COVID-19). Today you could speak to that service provider to create a plan for her sustainability and engagement, and prevent the two-week notice from being submitted in the first place.
So if data is the first step to becoming an innovative agency, what is keeping you from analyzing and utilizing it? Again, two major components are at play here:
Having the tools to make decisions just as fast as our current environment is changing, is essential. In this upcoming blog series, we will explore the tools needed and points of data to analyze within three major aspects of your agency’s operations:
Join us as we take a deep dive into each one over the coming weeks to understand how data can drive innovation in the behavioral health and I/DD fields.
For the entire article of ‘Innovation in a Crisis: Why it is more critical than ever’, click here.
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